Classical Stuff

Last weekend was an excellent one for Harvard, musically speaking. Among the least-advertised but most pleasurable events was a free concert in the Dunster Library on April 8, given by the Van Swieten Quartet, who are in residence at the Longy School. They played rarely heard early Beethoven (the Op. 18 String Quartet in C minor) with a musicality that was undercut somewhat by the lack of humidity, a condition to which the group's rare, expensive instruments are sensitive. Still, they kept some monstrous repeats from being boring, choosing unpredictable phrasings and doing an unforgettable job of blending, without becoming indistinct especially the harder-to-hear viola (Joan Ellersick). The tempi were on the whole a bit shy for Beethoven, but the musicians' attention to detail kept everything tight. The allegro finale was a marvel.

After intermission the Quartet turned to a sprawling Mendelssohn work, whose first movement tried our patience, even with the score on hand. The humidity took its toll in the andante, but the prior minuet was full of subtlety and humor, and the closing presto sparkled. The four adults were a cut above even very talented Harvard chamber musicians, few of whom could afford violinist Kinloch Earle's 1630 Amati.

The Boston Symphony recently hosted guest conductor Bernard Haitink and pianist Andras Schiff in music of Brahms and Beethoven. These pieces were preceded by some rather tepid Tippett, the ritual dances from The Midsummer Marriage. That music will receive no further comment, except that the reading was rather soporific from an ensemble that so prides itself on favored-stepson status with the late British composer.

Schiff was the soloist for Beethoven's fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58--technically the most challenging of five; and musically the most adventurous. Schiff is known for silky Schubert and playful Bach, and the Beethoven fit under his fingers less naturally. Although his prodigious gifts made for some hair-raising pianissimo, his playing lacked the requisite Schnabelian drive. He strove for a nearly pedal-free sound at times when more blurring would have been a relief, and he attached the first movement cadenza with all the grace of an angry farmer. The effect was wild, precipitous, unique--but out of place. The second movement demonstrated Schiff's peerless trill technique, while the third hurdled toward a deft close as leprechaun like as the diminutive pianist himself.

Brahms' First Symphony concluded the program. This composer was not always so beloved in town--in the 1890s, it was proposed that a sign above the rear of Symphony Hall should read "exit in case of Brahms." No one ran for the door, however, as Haitink masterfully mustered a grandiose yet precise reading. At the risk of iconoclasm, his technique is much clear and less irksome than Uncle Seiji's. To be fair, however, the first movement lost focus en route to the slinky final recapitulation.

My favorite part of the whole work is the heavenly oboe solo in the slow movement, which came off flawlessly. The same could not be said for the analogous solo of concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, who suffered from projection problems and musical hypertension. The third movement zipped along thanks to a perfectly achieved balance between the high winds and high strings. Loss of focus plagued most of the many memorable melodies of the finale. The first appearance of the chorale theme, in the brass, was somehow preferable to the weighty recapitulation near movement's end.

Standing ovations have clearly been stripped of their meaning, since this middling concert got two. All in all, then, balance was an issue, and one would hope for more from the BSO. Perhaps pianist Maria Joao Pires will make a more favorable impression with the Mozart Concerto K. 271.

On April 19 the ad hoc Eliot Chamber Orchestra gave the forth annual Rainforest Concert, to Benefit the World Wildlife Fund. The small crowd was not disappointed, as the virtuosity of the two featured soloists (Joe Lin '00 and Yuki Sekino '99) proved to be irreproachable. Lin gave the fifth Mozart Violin Concerto and, due to the inferior quality of the ensemble, was forced to take everything down a notch. Tempi lagged but, on the other hand, the winds were wonderful in the andante. John Allanbrook '99, a musical jack-of-all trades, elicited a deliberate, score--fixated performance from his musicians-perhaps not so surprising since the concert came off after only a handful of rehearsals. It will surprise few that Lin's voicing, especially in the cadenzas, was stellar.

The concert also featured Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, that phylanstery of complex chromatic chords. While this piece showed off Allanbrook's technique to advantage, the performance suffered from major intonation problems. The tempi were questionable, but the reading cohered, if quirkily, and the ambition was impressive given the forces available.

It is tough choice whether to prefer Sekino's amazing dynamic control or her fabulous dress. Her rendition of the Mozart G Major Concerto began with projection problems but blossomed into a miracle of subtly shaded staccato. To be fair, Lin was better at conversing with the orchestra, but Sekino gave a more exciting performance. Where appropriate, she amplified the music to operatic dimensions.

Her best chords were bell-ringers, and the balance between hand was astounding. The only regrettable thing is that the audience was not larger.